BEACH HOUSE

This was our 6th trip to the beach house at Pajaro Dunes. We go in the fall the week before Thanksgiving. Its quiet, we ususally have great weather, and we all can relax before the holiday crunch begins. We have decided to take a break for next year, but Im not sure this really works for me. I just love this place. Its a little slice of heaven. This year I took pictures of the many, many different views from the window.

TURKEY DAY

Our Thanksgiving was simple, but fun. We did the whole prep thing, then went to the movies. We saw Blind Sides, liked it a lot. Kelly was working, Jen & Nate visited with his family and friends. Dinner therefore was around 6:30, by this time, we were all in a Turkey coma and most of us had not yet had any turkey. Kelly's B/F Chris joined us. We were laughing because we just could not move out of our chairs...but we are SO BLESSED. life really couldnt be better, we have more than enough to be thankful for. God is so GOOD!

Kyle

My Nephew Kyle spent some time with us this fall. He is so WONDERFUL. He has a great nack for conversation, this means that when he is around I dont have to do the "work" of making him feel comfortable. Its just fantastic!! Kelly and he have a wonderful friendship, one of the nice things about"family". Come any time Kyle.....

Just Venting

Ok

Here is one of the things that really bothers me after 23 years of Homeschooling. It is 11:30, and I would cut off my right arm to be down walking on West Cliff(10 min. from home), in the Sun, instead of sitting here with the boy, writing a paper on Justinian......just venting....again.

Bargin-Dinner and a movie

Mark & I spent time in Carmel for our Anniversary this past month and found a great local bargain. http://www.montrio.com/ This Bistro offers dinner and a movie special for $21. You call ahead and they will purchase your movie tickets (theater is right across the street- OSIO). The food is really swanky. This special is also connected to the (moonstone hotel chain) Monterey Hotel http://www.moonstonehotels.com/MHRooms.htm, directly across the street. They have a midweek special for $119, you get hotel and $30 gift certificate for the Montrio Bistro (with the movie special). In essence you get hotel, dinner and movie for around $140. Nice little get away.

yesterday, jen called me to come and join her and our dear friend Lena Ballard, down the street at the 'nail place'. This was Lena's first pedicure, and she was like a kid on Christmas morning. Made me realize how fortunate I am. Pedicures really are very indulgent. Felton Nails, our local nail place was empty. This was so unusual, as they are usually the most hopping place in town. I hope they pick-up, Lee and Nancy are truly sweet people and I would hate to see them close. Perhaps I will have to do my part and have my nails done more often......

bird watching

Im still working on the details of this blog thing. When I forget to do something, the edit is not quite clear....Here is the Heron.

morning walk

This morning was beautiful

Pink skies...so I ran back up the hill (very difficult because we were not warmed up yet) and grabbed my camera. But, by the time we got back down the hill (almost as difficult as going up) the pink had faded. They say that it's not going to rain...but the sky tells a different tale. Then, we spotted a Great Blue Heron.It flew low over one of the backyard and sat in a tree, then flew across the river. If you look carefully, you can see it. This is a great way to start the day, and it meant that we did more "watching" then walking. A nice change of pace after more then a decade of walking in circles every morning.

Today was all about leaves...this is the norm when you live under redwood trees. I cleaned up the yard from last mondays wind storm. I filled 9 garbage cans with stuff. Thats only one storm. I did the same thing 2 weeks ago....But...the blessing was todays weather. WHAT A BEAUTIFUL DAY. warm and sunny....a real slice of heaven. And, a clean yard to boot. Thank you God for the garbage man who will come and take it all away tomarrow.

Blogs are not perfect

Ok, after some thinking, (like right before I nod off to sleep) I realized that I was thinking of the wrong painting that I saw in the Vatican. The Fra Filippo painting was in the Uffizi...all the rest still holds true. I guess the point is that after seeing so many works of art, running in and out of all those museums, there are few works that really stick in my mind. Works that after seeing the real thing, I now have a different appreciation for. This is the painting the 'wowed' me at the Vatican. Its something that you see on Christmas cards, but the color (again) is remarkable! It stands out in my memory of all that we saw at the Vatican.

So the moral is that blogging, (off the top of ones head) can only be valued as much as the head from whence it comes.

painting that stands out

One reason I like the idea of blogging is that I can share the ideas that come to me 'off the top of my head'. And those of you who know me, know that I often have many thoughts. But being home and homeschooling for 20plus years...leaves me thinking-to-myself. Now I can bug the rest of you ......

today, beside cleaning up leaves from the storm, I am working on a power-point for my students art history class....

I included this painting by Fra Filippo Lippi. I saw this painting when we visited the Vatican, although I understand that it belongs to in Uffizi Gallery in Florence. I'm glad that I didn't see it there. That museum is way too small for all the "stuff" inside. But, when I saw it, I remember thinking just how beautiful it was. This guy was WAY ahead of his game. There is something about this painting that transcends time. Perhaps its the little cherubs that look almost like comic characters. It almost looks modern is someways....never really appreciated it until I saw the real thing. The tonal quality is really amazing.....

garden pictures for Karen

As you can see with my double entry, I'm learning the ropes of Blogging.

I am posting some garden pictures for my dear friend Karen who now lives in Florida. We share a love of digging in dirt. These pictures were taken in June when the peonies are at the "perfect" stage. The water fountain was a gift mark and I gave to each other for our 25Th wedding anniversary...this year we just celebrated our 31st....where does the time go?

I finally trotted down the street to take some shots of my neighbors house with a tree sticking out of the roof, but the tree was already cleaned up. This is one of the hazards of living under redwood trees.

Best laid plans

Well two days later I finally trotted down the street with my camera to shot pics of the tree through the roof, but they have already cleaned it up. The estimate is 3 month to make repairs. As you can see, this is one of prices paid for living under redwood trees.

Thus we begin

Ive decided to try my hand at Blogging...hoping that this gives my long distance pals an opportunity to check into the play by play of life. Today, its really windy. The top of a redwood tree came crashing through the roof of my neighbors house yesterday. I intend to take a photo and figure out how to put it onto the blog...that's my mission for the day...Oh and the dentist.